DAR expects final list of Luisita beneficiaries by January

Agrarian Reform Secretary Virgilio “Gil” delos Reyes. PHOTO FROM GOV.PH

MANILA, Philippines–The Department of Agrarian Reform will be working through Christmas and New Year to evaluate all remaining claims to the Hacienda Luisita sugar estate and to draw up the final list of farmer beneficiaries by the end of January.

Agrarian Reform Secretary Virgilio Delos Reyes said the DAR was in the process of assessing the requirements of 900 people who claimed to be working for the Cojuangco-owned estate at the time it was placed under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program.

Of that number, 300 had petitioned to be included in the preliminary master list released by the DAR in October, while 600 others were included in a provisional list but who were asked to submit additional documents to support their claims, the official said.

Delos Reyes said the DAR would be interviewing the 300 petitioners for inclusion in the next few weeks. The DAR hopes to release the final list by the last week of January, he added.

On Oct. 31, the DAR released two lists: a preliminary master list of 5,365 people who stand to receive land, and a provisional list of 1,221 others whose documents were not complete.

Claimants were given until Nov. 30 to file petitions to be included in the list or to exclude somebody from the list. Those already in the provisional list were asked to submit additional evidence they were employed as farm worker in Hacienda Luisita in 1989.

But Delos Reyes said nobody ended up petitioning for the exclusion of anybody on the preliminary master list in spite of allegations aired by a militant group that some of the names were dummies.

Last month, the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas bared five names included in the preliminary list who they claimed were not actually farm workers but stable hands looking after the horses of President Aquino’s relatives on the Cojuangco side.

In 1988, when the Carp took effect, the owners of Hacienda Luisita gave the farmers an option to own shares of stock instead of land in what was seen as an attempt to circumvent the law.

After a prolonged court battle, the Supreme Court in May upheld with finality the decision of the Presidential Agrarian Reform Council in 2005 to scrap the stock distribution option of Hacienda Luisita.

The court ordered the distribution of 4,915 hectares of the estate to 6,296 farm workers.